Maximum Ride: Twisted Tales
by cheeky nora
Summary: this story is set after the final warning. the flock meets a girl who happens to have wings as well and they set off to arizona. fax! and a new, unexpected romance as well! r&r please! rated T for: language, action violence, and suggestive content
1. Chapter 1: Tough Stuff

Chapter 1: tough stuff

"Aarrrrggghhhhh! Back at another stupid School with stupid scientists with stupid guns in a stupid cell chained by stupid chains to a stupid wall!" cried Nudge.

That pretty much sums up our predicament. I'm Maximum Ride, called Max for short, and well, I'm just going to jump right in and tell you. Me and the Flock, we have wings, forced to grow them by sick scientists while we were still in our mom's stomachs. Totally gross, right?

The Flock pretty much consists of me, Fang, Iggy, all at the ancient age of fourteen, Nudge, eleven, Gasman, eight, and Angel, my baby, at six. Fang recently kissed me on the lips, but he hasn't been too flirty since and I don't really know what's up with him. He's the dark, mysterious type. Iggy happens to be blind, but he gets on all right as long we don't chop off our hair and he can't tell who's who. Nudge is our little motor mouth. That girl can go on for hours at a time! Gasman, aka Gazzy, man, you don't want to be around when he blows. What can I say; he's always had a really bad digestive system. Angel is my baby and she can read/change minds. Creepy, huh? Oh, and she's also Gazzy's little sister.

The whole thing about us being caught in another damn underground School is, unfortunately, very true. It's somewhere up in Canada, which we found out from Angel while she was overhearing white coats think.

"At least we're hooked up to these walls and not in dog crates," Iggy commented with a smirk.

Yeah, you heard right: dog crates. That, my dear friends, is what we grew up in. Trust me, it does something to a girl. Possibly makes her witty, sarcastic, and clever. Not to mention a very good liar. Then again, that may come from being the leader of The Flock.

Ok, so a couple of days passed and we started having weird tests done on us. Angel had to run through mazes, Gasman had wires hooked up to him for hours, Iggy had strange test with his eyes, Fang had to kick some Flyboy butt, and I had to fly around a room. It was killer! And the whole time they were experimenting on one of us, those scientists wouls have the rest of The Flock lined up against a wall with guns to our heads. It was completely sick.

On the third day, The Flock and I were sitting in our cell when the door swung open. This is where it gets really interesting; so don't put this book down. There I was, sitting with Angel, Nudge, and Gazzy, lying my guts out about how I'm going to get us out of this. Aww, the sweet joys of being the leader of on-the-run bird kids.

First thing we noticed was the screams of strong and very colorful language coming from the middle of the large group of white coats that had come through the iron door. Those sick, evil, mad scientists threw a girl around my age onto the floor. Seeing their faces and arms, we all cracked up. It seemed that this girl was tough stuff, according to the bloody lips, black eyes and bruised arms of the scientists. She didn't go without a fight.

Nudge crawled over to the girl, who had long brown hair, part of it hacked off to make messy side swepped bangs, which were probably cut by accident. Her face was totally covered in bruises and blood and she was short and skinny, probably from living in a freaking dog crate.

Through all the tangles and mess I might not have even recognized her.


	2. Chapter 2: Twist

That can't be-" started Gazzy, but the look on my face stopped him

That can't be-" started Gazzy, but the look on my face stopped him.

Five years ago when Jeb rescued us from the School, I left behind pretty much half of me. Yeah, I know that sounds like a Hallmark card, but whatever. The girl lying there on the floor was Twist, my best friend. She had been in a cage really near to me in the School. She had never seemed to have much wrong with her (experimentation wise).

I crawled over to her and laid her head in my lap. Her puffy bruised eyelids opened.

"Max? Is that really you?" Twist asked in a really scratchy and dry voice. She started coughing really hard.

"Holy crap! Twist!" I was so excited! This was my best friend! "I never thought I'd see you again!"

"To be honest, I always kind of hoped you'd come back for me," she said.

"Well we're all here. When did you get shipped to _Canada_?" asked Fang.

The way he said it let me know that he had really missed Twist, too. She sat up and looked around.

"Oh. My. God," she whispered. "Angel? Gazzy? Fang? Nudge? Iggy?"

The looks on all their faces were identical. I had had the feeling that even Gasman wouldn't ever have forgotten the girl who had nearly gotten killed a white coat to save him from being experimented on the way Iggy had been (which had made him go blind).

"Oh, forget me, the stupid dog!" said a very angered Total.

"Ughhhh… did that dog just talk?" Twist looked really scared. "Am I going insane?"

Everyone cracked up.

"Twist, meet Total, Angel's talking dog. So, no, you're not insane, yet!" Iggy said.

"Shut up," Twist replied, playfully pushing him on the shoulder with a little smirk on her face. "Oh, and a few months ago," Twist said, answering Fang's question. "I've been living in a _very_ roomy dog cage. I considered hiring an interior decorator, but apparently they don't do cages. I'm still looking for a specialist." That's Twist for you; tough as nails, bitingly sarcastic, and yet completely loveable. "Actually, I'm not even sure why I'm here instead of the cage. They dragged me into the hallway, knocked me unconscious, and then I remember waking up while they dragged me here. I mean, obviously some time had passed and stuff, but whatever." She shrugged her shoulders indifferently and suddenly, I felt that best friend bond that I had almost forgotten.


	3. Chapter 3 Unexpected

Chapter 3

**FAX! Yay! Gosh, twist is just such a loveable character :) **

**Oki-dokie, please read and review! Lots of people read stuff andthen don't tell you what they think! sigh infuriating…**

**Disclaimer: Nope, don't own anything to do with Maximum ride, expect the story line :) oh and I also own the character Twist **

It was really late that night, and everyone in the Flock (including Twist) was asleep except Fang and me. He edged as close as close to me as the chains would allow, which meant our shoulders were touching. My heart was thumping like a maniac.

"Max…" he whispered, not looking at me. "I don't care that you don't wear a skirt."

"What?!" I _almost _screamed. What the hell was he talking about?

"What you said on the boat in Antarctica… about me throwing myself at everything in a skirt. I don't care that you wear mostly jeans and not a skirt." His unusually expressionless face was staring at me with alarming uncertainty.

Oh, boy, this was going to be one of those uncomfortable 'feelings' chats. Give me ten Flyboys, and I'll kick butt, but I'm not so hot at admitting my feelings. I'm not even sure WHAT my feelings toward Fang are! I mean, he was my right hand man, and recently he kissed me? Ugh, what is that all about? It's piss-off annoying.

"Umm… well… thanks," I said awkwardly. Oh, God, no sarcastic responses were coming to mind…

His expression now was smug. God, I wanted to smack that expression off his face so bad. He could so clearly see that I was feeling awkward. "So?" he asked expectantly.

"So, _what_?" I was confused times two, now.

"So, this." All his charming uncertainty gone, he leaned in and kissed me. Just like that. Right on the lips. His lips gently covered mine; gentle yet firm and his hands came around to my back, pulling me closer. Something didn't seem right. I quickly broke off, but he continued to hug me.

"Umm… yeah." I reluctantly pulled out of his grip and pretended to fall asleep. Why was I such an idiot! A relationship like that could not only ruin the Flock, but also could break me worse than anything a Flyboy could do. Fang was not fooled by me pretending, though.

"You're so stubborn, Max!" he hissed in the darkness. "You get angry every time I notice someone else, but when I notice you, as a girl, you freak out! What the hell am I supposed to do?"

Fang was very, very angry. But I was just as furious.

"I'm trying to guide the Flock and keep everyone safe! What the hell am _I_ supposed to do?!" I can't remember ever being more angry.

"Oh yeah, you did a _great_ job of keeping everyone safe!" he whispered icily, gesturing around the cell.

At first anger flared, but then it ebbed, replaced by disbelief and a horrible choking sensation. "I'm sorry I'm not your idea of a hero," I whispered in what I hoped was furious, but really came out in a sissy, cracking kind of way.

I edged away from him s far as possible and curled up in a ball, tears silently running down my cheeks. Yup, I said it: Invincible Max, crying like a baby. Just as I was drifting into an uneasy sleep, a hair-raising screech cut the air. I sprang to my feet, looking around the cell. Twist was writhing on the floor, the back of her shirt soaked in blood. Fang crawled over to her and tore the back of her shirt open. There, obviously growing from her back, were gray feathers in two perfect lines on either side of her spine.

"Holy fill in the blank," Fang said in a hoarse voice. "She's growing wings."

Iggy took off his shirt and ripped it into shreds. He handed them to me and said, "Wrap them around her to help stop the bleeding." I couldn't help but notice how extremely and totally worried he looked.

I looked at Fang and he gave me a sympathetic look, our earlier argument forgotten.

Angel had this really pained look on her face and very suddenly puked all over the floor.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Nudge in a worried voice.

"You have—They—She—Those horr— ughhhhh," shuddered Angel. "I can see what they did to her to make her grow wings." She shuddered again.

I decided I didn't want to know right now. Wrapping Iggy's shirt strips around Twist's skinny body, I almost puked just like Angel.


	4. Chapter 4: Wings

Mk, so yeah. We find out some things about nudge and stuff about why twist was in so much pain. I really hope you like this chapter and all the other ones! Also, I want to thank 'randomness goddess' for all her help and reviews :) thanks! Please read and review! Oh, and I changed Nudge's age from this point on. She is 12, going to be 13 in five months. All other ages are the same.

Chapter 4

By the next morning, Twist had a new pair of huge, gray, blood-soaked wings. They looked about sixteen feet from tip to tip. That's longer than mine, at thirteen, and Fang's and Iggy's, at fourteen. And she's way smaller than all of us, even though she's only two months younger than Iggy.

Last night had been one of the worst of my life. And trust me, I've had some hellish ones.

Unfortunately, Twist was the same color as her new wings. Her face was gray from loss of blood and her whole body was covered in blood from the deep gouges in her back.

A huge group of white coats came in and seemed pretty damn shocked that she was still alive. I thought Iggy was going to strangle them, his face contorted with fury. They took her away on a lab wheelie table thingy. Not that she didn't put up a fight, or anything.

The hours crawled by; minutes seeming like years. Iggy spent the whole time drumming his fingers or pacing as far as his chains would allow.

"Uhhh," I groaned. "What time is it?"

"2:30," Total said automatically. He had a chain around his neck. "I feel like a dog! Oh, my God!"

"Umm… Total? You are a dog," Angel said uncertainly.

"You know what I mean," he snapped back.

"How'd you know the time?" Nudge asked, twirling her hair around her finger. "Is it a new power? Like Angel's talking to sharks? Like my computer hacking? Like Max's super fast flying?" She said all this really, really fast. Her talking was apparently in over drive. Oh. Crap. "Well, how'd you mffkelethm," she was cut off as Fang reached over and covered her mouth with his hand.

"OH, thank God!" screeched Total as Nudge finally shut up. "Jesus, I thought I was going to _die_! Nudge, do you have a mute button?"

I reached over and kicked him just hard enough to make him quiet. He death-glared at me and said shortly, "I don't know how I did it. I just did." He turned his back to us with a slight _humph_.

I will be truthful. I was terrified for Twist. I thought I was going to be sick through the next many, long hours. I had no idea where Twist was or if she was even alive. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much the white-coats had to do to Twist to make her a true avian-kid.

_You're right, Max. They did do a lot to her. _Oh. My. Freaking. God. It was my handy-dandy voice.

_What the hell do you want?_ I was NOT in a patient mood.

_Goodness, Maximum. Watch that language. _

_Don't you _dare _get fatherly with me, Jeb!_ I screamed it in my head.

_Fine. Back to business. Twist had to go through a lot. They hollowed out her bones, gave her more air sacks, amplified her strength and endurance, and made her grown wings. In one night. _

_How would you know? _Now I really thought I was going to puke.

_Trust me, Max. ( know. I also know that it takes a verys trong person to survive that. I'm just telling you to look out for her. _

_She's my best friend! I look out for __everyone__ in my Flock._

There was no reply. _Good,_ I thought. _I'm sick of Jeb and his confusing advice. _

By that time, almost everyone in the Flock was asleep. Angel leaned against Nudge, who sat stroking Angel's soft, blonde hair as tears streamed silently down her face. Gazzy was leaned up against the wall, his eight-year-old face buried in his knees. By the rise and fall of his chest, I could tell he was asleep. Fang was leaning against the wall, too. His head leaned back, his eyes closed, but I could tell he was just dozing. Iggy was sleeping, his hands bloodied and bruised from pounding the wall with his fists in frustration. Total was sleeping, curled up against Angel.

"Nudge?" I asked very, very quietly.

She snapped her head up and quickly dried her tears, not wanting me to see.

"Yes, Max?" **(As I said at the beginning author's note, Nudge is 12, going to be 13 in five months. All the other ages are the same as I said in chapter one)**

"Honey, it must be past midnight. Is everything… okay?" I finished lamely.

She looked at me steadily for a solid minute and then whispered, "No. Every day's a struggle, Max! Every day I have to wake up wondering if we're all going to make it. Every day I sit and wonder how little Angel is going to feel today. Or how hurt is she going to get? What about Gasman? He's eight, Max! Eight!"

I felt as though someone had punched me in the stomach. Nudge had just voiced every worry I had about our lives. I noticed she was crying again and then something wet fell into my lap. It was a tear. Reaching up, I realized that I was crying. Pain beyond anything I had ever felt before washed over me very suddenly. Wave after wave of unbearable misery.

_That's not your pain, Max,_ came my Voice. _It's Nudge's._

_What?!_

_You're feeling what Nudge is feeling right now. _

_Why? How?_ Nudge was feeling THIS? Another wave of agonizing sadness rushed over my body.

_Hmmm… Apparently, Nudge's emotions are amplified by some strange new power. Hang on. It seems as though, whenever she's feeling something particularly strong, such as love, misery, or anger, it can affect people around her. _

"Max? Yo, Max!" Nudge was talking to me. "Are you alright? You look kind of glazed.

"Oh. Yeah." I relayed Jeb's message about her power to her.

"Oh," she said, no emotion reading on her face. "It's something I have absolutely no control over." Her face crumbled, and she dissolved into tears. I scooted as close as I could to her and hugged her close. Nudge turned and buried her face in my sweater, muffling the sobs that racked her body.

"It's okay, honey." I said. "It's okay."

Nudge shook her head, trying to regain composure. "It's not okay. Sorry for falling apart like this, Max." She wiped her eyes, gave me a watery smile and hugged Angel again, who had remained sleeping.

As I stared at her, I realized that she was really growing up. I cracked a small, sad smile. One less person I really had to worry about and lie to.


End file.
